I’ve written dozens of features about AI assistants. I’ve compared their features, broken down the latest updates and stress-tested prompts to determine the best ones.
But to truly determine which one works best for me and my productivity, I had to use them exclusively one at a time without the temptation of jumping to another.
If you’ve been keeping up, you know how much I love prompt dusting, that is, using one chatbot and then entering the response into another chatbot to refine the results. But not this time. That was off limits for this particular test.
For one week, I ran a full-scale experiment. I rotated through ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Claude 4 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Perplexity and DeepSeek as my daily assistant.
The only rule was I had to use each one exclusively for a full 24 hours, no switching mid-day. To ensure that I wouldn’t cheat, I reluctantly logged out of every chatbot that I wasn’t allowed to use.
From researching why my dishwasher kept tripping and tips to help avoid toddler tantrums to planning meals and helping with my workflow, I put all of the assistants to the test to keep up with my chaotic life.
And at the end of the week, only one of them felt like it could stay.
Day 1: ChatGPT-4o
ChatGPT offers Voice and Vision, which I use all the time for hands free assistance. When my son’s soccer tournament got switched to a completely different park – while I was driving. I used the assistant to immediately figure out where I was supposed to be in ten minutes. The chatbot did not stumble and even told me to stay calm as I pulled over and searched for directions.
Another way I used ChatGPT on its designated day was summarizing text messages in a group chat of 15 very chatty moms. I needed to catch up fast so I took a few screenshots, uploaded them in the app and ChatGPT helped me get the gist of the conversaton without skipping a beat.
The human-like element of ChatGPT, especially when it comes to life’s craziest moments, is where this chatbot shines. I found the chatbot was faster and better at voice, image and memory tasks. It remembered my preferences when it came to planning meals for the day and even helped me brainstorm ideas for my father-in-law’s birthday with surprising creativity.
Where it shined:
Memory and custom instructions made it feel personal
Great for brainstorming and creativity
Solid image interpretation
Ideal emotional support
Where it lagged:
Sometimes still too eager to please, less critical than I wanted
Multimodal features work best in the app, not browser
Day 2: Claude 4 Sonnet
I’ll admit, going from ChatGPT to Claude was tricky. Although it has a new voice feature, it’s definitely not as good so I opted to keep the chats with text messages.
Claude is alo thoughtful, sometimes to a fault. The chatbot gave me deeply reasoned answers and beautiful prose but it could get a bit verbose.
Unlike ChatGPT where I feel like I’m chatting with a friend, Claude can sometimes feel like I’m talking to a philosophy major. The chatbot feels far less personal. It also cannot handle as many sporadic questions.
For example, I was meeting a friend for dinner at a restaurant I hadn’t been to before and Claude had a hard time giving me directions. I said it was next to a park and the assistant suggested I call the park ranger. Not ideal.
The assistant was helpful when I got an extremely long email from my literary agent that I didn’t have time to read at the moment, but needed to respond to. It helped craft an email that I was able to send based on a summary of the email.
Another unexpected win? Claude is great for emotional nuance. When I was struggling to word a delicate message, not professional, but something personal with a little emotional weight, Claude really delivered.
Claude's responses weren’t just grammatically clean, they were empathetic, balanced and thoughtful. If you ever need to write a message that’s both clear and kind, Claude is surprisingly good at finding that tone.
Where it shined:
Incredible at nuanced reasoning and long-term structure
Calm, articulate tone
Great with analysis and summarization
Where it lagged:
Less helpful for immediate questions like directions
Voice feature not great
Day 3: Gemini Live
Gemini is a tool I use all the time and I definitely missed it on my ChatGPT and Claude days. The chatbot is fast, visually aware and connected to Google’s ecosystem — which helps keep me in check throughout the week.
From searching for real-time info or pulling from Gmail and Docs, this is always my go-to bot. However, when it comes to creativity, Gemini can be a little bit lackluster.
Gemini Live was helpful when I realized the chicken I purchased for dinner was expired by two days. Was it okay to eat? It told me no and then made suggestions based on what it could see in my fridge and pantry. I ended up making some crispy chicken wraps for the family that were a big hit.
Another way Gemini helped was at bedtime when my kids were just not having it. If you’re a parent with young kids, you know just how hard bedtime can be. All you want to do is go to bed and all the kids want is find any excuse not to.
I turned on Gemini Live and asked for help. With one prompt of “Help me get my kids to bed!” It came up with some really helpful tips including whispering (even though I wanted to scream) to help calm the kids that were practically bouncing off the walls.
Where it shined:
Fantastic for Google Workspace integration
Excellent at organizing info and finding sources
Strong math and chart-making skills
Where it lagged:
Creativity was underwhelming
Occasionally hallucinated formatting or skipped nuance
Day 4: Perplexity AI
Perplexity is like a turbo-charged research intern. It gives real citations, fast summaries, and real-time web results. But it’s not really a conversation partner — more like a search engine in a chatbot suit.
On the model’s designated day, I used it while drafting a story. I needed to double-check when a specific AI model launched. Perplexity pulled the date instantly — along with three sources I could actually click and verify. No hallucinations.
Actually, I’ve never seen Perplexity hallucinate. Have you? Let me know in the comments. I’m really curious about this one.
That same day, I was looking for a small but powerful fan for my office now that summer has officially hit New Jersey and wanted to compare prices. Perplexity laid out side-by-side specs and recent reviews from trusted sites — all in under 30 seconds. It felt like skipping three Google tabs.
I also used Perplexity to dive into the news and catch up on newsletters that I’d been saving for my Perplexity day. Wait, was that cheating? It pulled from current articles, summarized the key updates and gave me links to explore more if I wanted. Less noise, more clarity.
Where it shined:
Best for fast, factual, source-backed answers
Great for staying up-to-date with news or product research
Fast and efficient
Where it lagged:
Lacks tone, personality or memory
Not ideal for brainstorming or big creative projects
Day 5: DeepSeek
DeepSeek was the dark horse of the week. I usually use this one for all things creativity, so I was genuinely impressed with how the chatbot stepped up to the plate for AI assistance. While it's not as well-known or widely used, it is quickly showing it can compete with the big names like ChatGPT and Gemini.
DeepSeek is incredibly capable when it comes to reasoning, coding and vision-based tasks.
In fact, my first test was visual. I uploaded a photo of my daughter’s field trip supply list (crumpled and slightly coffee-stained) and asked DeepSeek to organize it into a shopping checklist by store. Not only did it read the handwriting correctly, it suggested which items I could get from Amazon, Target or Walmart. And get this, it even gave me estimated prices.
Later, I asked DeepSeek to help explain why my cat was coughing and sneezing excessively. It gave me a detailed but understandable breakdown of possible causes and even helped me find vets in the area (although we have one, it proved it was doing it's job as an assistant).
I noticed that it wasn't as chatty as ChatGPT, but definitely “friendly.” DeepSeek shines when you need serious problem-solving or tech-heavy tasks done fast.
Where it shined:
Exceptional vision analysis and image-based reasoning
Strong logical thinking and technical explanations
Great for coding, math, and structured planning
Where it lagged:
Limited personality or warmth in conversation
Not ideal for emotional tone or open-ended brainstorming
Final verdict: the one I’d keep
With the unpredictablity of each day, the whole “you get what you get” test turned into a wild ride. But, after a week of controlled AI-assisstance, ChatGPT came out on top with Gemini Live as a very close second.
ChatGPT isn’t perfect, but the memory aspect of this chatbot is a huge asset for me. It knows me best, so I don’t have to repeat myself. With memory enabled and custom instructions dialed in, it was the only one that felt like it was adapting to me — not the other way around.
This chatbot strikes the best balance between creativity, utiliy and usability. It also just feels the most like a true assistant. It knew my tone. It anticipated my needs. It helped me work and think better.
That said, I have found that using them all in a hybrid way is the best way. I’ll always keep Claude around for deep dives and Perplexity for quick research. Gemini is intertwined in my workflow so there’s no way that one is going anywhere.
Bottom line: I’m glad I don’t have to make a choice.
More from Tom's Guide
- Google’s NotebookLM just got a huge upgrade — here’s why it beats ChatGPT for team projects
- This reverse prompt makes ChatGPT troll me — and the advice is weirdly better
- I can’t stop using these 5 ChatGPT prompts — they’re next-level genius
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